Scale Back

Eating habits are based on more than just hunger. Several other factors are involved in how and what we eat: enjoyment, impulse, convenience, cultural background, environment, emotional status and so on. Our physique, age, height, muscle tone, bone structure, physical activities, mental status and metabolism make us all a little different. Let me emphasize the words, “A little different.” As a former nurse, I have only met ONE person who ever had a metabolic disorder that caused them to experience excessive weight gain. Why am I emphasizing the fact that we are all just “A little different?” Simple, I know our human (fleshly) nature and if you give our feeble little minds any room for doubt, (“Oh, I can’t lose the weight because I have a metabolic disorder”) guess what will happen? Yep, I then have given you just another excuse to fail.

It's easy to see why most diets that ignore our eating habits always fail. Eliminating or restricting certain foods is unnecessary and can not be sustained. We all know how hard it is to go against our nature or to abruptly change our lifestyle. As I have said many times before, you have been eating particular types of foods all of your life; even since before birth. Yes, even the nutrients passed through umbilical cord during pregnancy have an effect on your predisposition to certain types of food items. Remember, if you tell your body no to a particular food that you have eaten all of your life, it will rebel!

That’s why Scale Back.com uses a simple mathematic method to account for what goes into your mouth as opposed to all of the advertising hypes regarding the bogus and failed diets that read like this: “The first and only Expert Nutritional System to truly evaluate your individual needs, and create an eating plan that will conform to your lifestyle and preferences.” Duh, my preference is to eat a large sausage pizza followed by a half gallon of Swiss Chocolate Ice Cream. Friends, we are going to use sixth grade math to take off, and keep off, those unwanted pounds.

The Scale Back.com method is not based on extensive scientific and nutritional experience, nor has it been optimized through the use of state of the art technology. That’s why it will work, because it functions at the level at which we all live. Remember my credo, “No pills, no programs, no surgeries and no fad diets!” I subscribe to the “KISS” method. Keep It Simple, Stupid.

The Scale Back.com method is simple and realistic. Losing weight doesn't mean you have to give up everything. Eating will remain enjoyable, and you'll still want to continue having good meals at home or when dining out with family and friends. Scale Back.com will help you to correct your over eating habits without asking you to give up the foods that you like to eat. And that is why it has worked for me, and it will work for you.

# posted by David @ 2:21 PM 15 comments

The never ending saga of the “quick fix” diets goes on and on like a poorly scripted soap opera on afternoon television - Atkins Diet...Weight Watchers... Jenny Craig...South Beach Diet…Cabbage Soup Diet…etc. General practitioners (family doctors), who are generally not nutritionists, often, steer their patients toward whatever fad diet is the current rage on the front pages of the checkout lane tabloids. I am blessed to have a physician that isn’t worried about losing my business ($$$$$$) as the result of telling me the truth. Unfortunately, most family doctors simply avoid telling the obese patient the straightforward medical facts about their medical condition; hence, the patient leaves the doctor’s office with a prescription for high blood pressure medication, a few kind words, a reassuring pat on the back and the current buzz word diet of the day. These misguided souls follow the specifics of any current fad diet for a few weeks and most of them will lose 6 to 10 pounds of excess weight. A small percentage of patients might even lose as much as 25 to 30 pounds. Of course, 25 to 30 pounds could be miniscule by comparison if you are 175 pounds overweight! Did the diet work? Unfortunately, it’s our nature to swear by that with which we have had recent success. Sadly, the weight returns, the patient is disappointed and the cycle begins again. In the final analysis, there's really only one diet that works: Eat less and exercise more.

NEWSFLASH!!!! Wake up chunky bunch. This is important stuff. If you really want to lose the weight and then keep the weight off permanently you need to pay attention to this important announcement. NOW HEAR THIS: The ultimate key to any successful weight-loss plan is to eat a variety of foods and burn up more calories than you take in. How to do this? Simple -- Eat less, get up off your backside and take a walk!

# posted by David @ 12:27 AM 27 comments

When it comes to weight loss, you may wonder if anyone can find hope. Yes, I believe you can. Scaleback.com is more than weight loss—it's a lifestyle change that encourages every person to find a just balance in his or her own life. I want to give you a helping hand of hope and a viable plan for lifestyle changes that will show you the reality of The Lord Jesus Christ in your everyday life.

I've met many people who have each lost more than 100 pounds. I am always amazed at the change in each one of these individuals, because such a weight loss seems impossible. Then I stop for a moment and consider that these people didn't lose their weight overnight; they did it over a period of months or years. Moreover, they are keeping that weight off—permanently. You may doubt that such a transformation is possible; hence, you may be somewhat apprehensive about beginning the task of realizing your life’s desire for permanent weight loss. If so, consider this my friends, "One step in the right direction, is worth a wasted mile left behind you."

# posted by David @ 8:22 PM 5 comments

Your daily caloric intake must contain essential nutrients in their proper amounts. It must have the proper balance carbohydrates, fat and protein; amino acids; vitamins; minerals; and ample amounts of water. The diet should include at least 1,200 calories per day. Daily caloric consumption below 1,200 calories could possibly cause damage to your body and permanently lower its basal metabolism. Additionally, you should engage in behavior modification to overcome poor eating habits or problem eating; therefore, you should look for ways to make lifestyle changes in order to maintain weight loss and prevent further weight gain. Your meals should not only accentuate good eating practices but also emphasize regular physical activity, stress reduction and other healthy changes in your lifestyle.

Be extremely careful about choosing fad diets or other “quick loss” programs. Albeit these programs are designed to help you lose weight, they lack the proper nutrients which can damage your health, foster depression and escalate the likelihood of repetitive failure during subsequent attempts to lose weight.


Pills, programs, surgery and fad diets do not work because they are not intended for permanent weight loss. These “quick fix” methods never address the root cause of obesity, and the food choices are so limited that the person cannot stick to the program for more than a couple weeks at best. Those who try the fad methods assume they have lost fat, but in reality, they have actually lost muscle and other lean tissue mass. Unfortunately, in a very short time, most of the lost weight is gained back. Moreover, most of these dieters will also gain additional mass that will exceed their original weight at the onset of the fad diet. The dieter appears to have failed and becomes emotionally distraught due to this set back when in actuality it is the diet that has failed.

# posted by David @ 11:03 PM 13 comments

Almost daily, in the newspapers and magazines, so-called authorities bombard us with health information. Much of the writing warns that pesticides are killing us, and we are cautioned to buy only organic meats and produce. Other news articles proclaim that our foods have no vitamins left, so we must consume mega doses of vitamin and mineral supplements to compensate for the lack natural nutritional elements. We are left unsure about what is factual and what is not.

The daily flood of weight-loss programs and information stirs mass confusion about how to lose weight and keep it off permanently. We then look in the mirror and see we are still fat despite losing hundreds of pounds in our lifetime.

# posted by David @ 11:03 PM 7 comments

Every year, approximately 10.5 million Americans spend $33 billion on weight-reduction programs and products. Unfortunately, the only significant weight loss the overwhelming majority those dieters ever experience is a momentary decrease in heaviness as their hard-earned cash leaves their pockets. We have become so enamored with the prospect of loosing excess pounds that the weight-loss craze is the second most popular recreational means of spending money, topped only by fitness. As a nation, we are consumed with thoughts about dieting. One thing that I have learned over the years is that throwing money at a problem is not going to resolve the problem; regardless of what the predicament may be.

Due to the over abundance of goods and services that are readily available to every consumer’s want, or whim, we have developed a convenience store mentality when it comes to making permanent changes in our lifestyles. No one is keen on investing a little time and effort into a healthy lifestyle that will return solid dividends in the short term, and reap huge benefits over the course of one’s life. The way we have thrown money at weight loss products, pills, programs and surgical procedures blatantly portrays our “Quickie Mart” mentality that says, “Who cares what it costs, I am in a hurry!” Folks just want to pay for a quick fix to resolve a health condition that more than likely took years to create. Yes, we have been spoiled. Simply put, our way of thinking cries out, “We want the world, and we want it NOW!” Of course, that is why internet auctions sites are chock full of overpriced treadmills and steppers that are now collecting dust in someone’s basement. Folks, you do not have to spend a huge some of money on worthless weight loss equipment, pills, support programs or surgery to loose weight! If you are bent on throwing away money because you believe that you can buy a healthy lifestyle, just toss your cash into an envelope and send it to me.

Alright then, so what’s a body to do? Should we eat foods high in protein and low in carbohydrates to lose weight? Others will say that the key to weight loss is to juice our fruits and vegetables and eat everything raw. Maybe the secret is to eliminate certain foods all together! Other programs want to sell us food; then our only task in order to lose weight is to heat and eat those foods. I know this will come as a huge shock to you, but the fad diets, pills, programs, prepackaged meals and surgical procedures are actually responsible creating the two greatest hindrances to effective weight-loss management. First, the problem with these quick fix methods is that we still have to learn to prepare and consume appropriate amounts of nutritious food after we have lost the weight. Second, whenever you force you body to deny itself of a particular food item, it will rebel! Think not? A key rudiment of weight loss success centers on the fact that you can not deprive your body of those foods that satisfy the pleasure center in your brain. If you are not satisfied, or satiated, after consuming a meal, you are destined to fail because you will inevitably eat junk until you feel content.

Even those men and women that have taken drastic measures to lose weight -- such as having a physician staple their stomachs or resorted to a technique known as gastric banding -- still find ways to eat too much and remain overweight. It comes as no surprise to me that even when resorting to such severe or stringent measures such as: starvation, fad diets, pills, programs, prepackaged meals and surgical procedures, those dieters who are forcing horrific changes upon their metabolism by employing such severe methods will most assuredly regain any lost weight within one or two years following the implementation of any “Quickie Mart” weight-loss program.

An overabundance of weight-loss programs and information is responsible for mass confusion about how to take weight off and keep it off permanently. We run to and fro trying to snag the easiest quick fix weight-loss program only to look in the mirror and see we are still fat despite losing hundreds of pounds in our lifetime. Through tears of discouragement we stare into looking glass deeply and say, “What can be done?”

# posted by David @ 1:41 PM 9 comments

I am with you. I have been in your shoes. No, I am in those shoes, as I am actively losing weight. I am here for you. So let’s get started. Please raise your right hand and repeat after me, “I can lose over one hundred pounds in 18 months without surgery, fad diets, pills or joining a support group. I can accomplish my weight loss goals without spending my hard-earned money on special food products, expensive health club memberships, or home exercise equipment.”

# posted by David @ 10:11 PM 6 comments

How would describe your unhappiness? Abhorrence, acrimony, aggravation, anger, animosity, annoyance, antagonism, aversion, bitterness, dejection, depression, desolation, despair, despondency, detestation, disapproval, discontentment, disgust, dislike, dissatisfaction, gloom, gloominess, glumness, hatred, hopelessness, hostility, loathing, misery, resentment, etc. All are descriptive of someone who is not happy. And what event birthed the unhappiness in your life? Might it have been an unfulfilling relationship, a divorce, a boyfriend, a girlfriend, the death of a loved one, an unsuccessful career path, a terminal diagnosis, overwhelming debt, retirement, adultery, substance abuse, old age, loneliness, failing faith, incarceration, etc? Truthfully, the how and why doesn’t really matter. None of us went to bed, got up the next morning, looked in mirror and said, “Wow! I am overweight.” The one thing that does matter is the what. What are you going to do now? As you lose the weight all of the how’s and why’s will begin to fade into a distant past and whatever was the root cause of your unhappiness will seem pale by comparison.

# posted by David @ 11:11 PM 5 comments

What my doctor didn’t know was that I have a very close friend who had been dealing with the effects of chronic Hepatitis C for several years. Over the course of those years my friend had told me about his various struggles with the disease. For example, once, as he was driving from Tennessee to Ohio, he became extremely nauseated. The nausea was so intense that it forced him to pull off the highway and park on the shoulder of the road. He stumbled out of the car and made his way to a nearby tree. He held onto that tree for several hours so as to steady himself while he vomited repeatedly. Between vomiting, passing out and resting, a scenario that was repeated over and over again, he was there from dusk until dawn.
I also learned from my friend that the pharmacological agents used to treat Hepatitis C only had a success rate of approximately 50% at best. Worse yet, the two medications used in combination as a cure for this dreaded disease are known to have extremely negative side effects; one of them being depression. The mood swings caused by the onset of the depression had lead to documented instances of suicidal tendencies. I walked out of the physician’s office thinking to myself, “I am going to become gravely ill, I have less than a fifty-fifty chance of a successful cure rate, a transplanted liver will just become infected with the disease again and I may commit suicide!” The diagnosis dealt an emotional blow, but prognosis frightened me. I began to seek solace in comfort foods. Regardless of what causes it, or what you choose to call it, unhappiness is the root cause of all overeating.

# posted by David @ 11:31 PM 3 comments

The internal medicine physician ordered additional blood tests and a cat scan. He also performed a thorough physical examination and completed an in depth medical history. I’ll never forget the telephone call from his nurse who asked me to come into the office for the results of my examination. She wouldn’t divulge anything over the telephone. As a former nurse myself, I knew that the diagnosis was going to be serious, because she was reluctant to discuss any aspect of the findings with me personally. I scheduled the appointment for that same day and I began counting the minutes until the results of my diagnosis could be presented to me. Upon my arrival at his office I was directed to the unavoidable purgatory of the examination room. I’ll never forget sitting on that cold, white table awaiting the diagnosis. In the stark silence of those moments a million thoughts raced through my mind. After the customary fifteen to thirty minute waiting period, the physician made his entrance into the room. I distinctly remember him saying, “Well, Mr. Hall, I have good news and not-so-good news.” Ugh! Don’t you just hate it when someone prefaces the conversation in that manner? He continued and said, “The good news is that you don’t have HIV.” I immediately countered by asking, “OK, so what’s the not-so-good news?” “Your test results indicate that you have Hepatitis C,” he replied. Suddenly, a wave of fear crept over me, and in an instant, everything seemed to be moving in slow motion. The doctor’s voice and body movements became measured and deliberate. It was an ethereal experience. I was numb as I watched his mouth slowly opening and closing as a muted murmuring of unintelligible words were echoing throughout the room. The physician tried his best to ally my fears by explaining all of the current treatment protocols for Hepatitis C. Unfortunately, his words fell on deaf ears.

# posted by David @ 11:36 PM 0 comments

In 1998 I had made an appointment with a dermatologist, because I had been experiencing sporadic episodes of a nail fungus infection and I knew there was an oral medication available to treat this condition. The topical applications that I had previously used in an attempt to alleviate the infection were of little effect and I wanted to try a systemic approach to resolve this condition. This particular prescription medication is quit strong and during their course of therapy some patients have encountered serious negative side effects. In rare instances, some patients taking this medication had experienced liver damage; therefore, the physician orders a blood test to be completed before the treatment is started. After the results of my blood test had been reviewed by the dermatologist he asked that I repeat the test due to an elevated liver enzyme reading. He believed that the blood sample may have been contaminated by the laboratory technician thus creating a flawed analysis. The reading was still elevated after the second blood test. The dermatologist immediately made an appointment for me to see an internal medicine specialist.

# posted by David @ 1:51 PM 1 comments

A few years later I received a wake-up call that nudged me just enough to begin a slight deviation from the broad way toward the straight and narrow path. From my wife’s perspective, and rightly so I might add, I had once again launched myself in another tirade over some trivial happening that had occurred during the course of my day. After patiently waiting for a pause, in my seemingly endless ranting, to offer a sensible response, she cautiously posed a question during a momentary lull. “David,” she said, “Do you think that your reaction to this incident that transpired over six hours earlier today would be considered reasonable by anyone who had just now walked into the room with us?” She continued by saying, “Maybe you have some physical problem that is affecting your emotions.” “Maybe you have high blood pressure?” I had kept my medical equipment from my days as a nurse. A sphygmomanometer and stethoscope had been collecting dust in the bedroom closet. Aletha helped me to check my blood pressure; it was 190/110. I sat there in the Lazy Boy reclining chair and asked myself, “How does a nurse, who knows the pathology of obesity, wind up with high blood pressure and risk premature death due to a stroke?” As I said earlier on, I have always been on the plump side, but now I faced with a life threatening medical problem. In 1993, I weighed 240 pounds and my blood pressure was 120/80. In only five years I had ballooned to 375 pounds. Why?

# posted by David @ 1:53 PM 1 comments

Needless to say, I was physically impaired, but it took years to realize the true impact of the emotional damage that was ongoing throughout this time period as the result of living a life morbidly obese; injury that was affecting not only me personally, but also those persons who were closest to me: my family, my friends and my co-workers. The people who loved me! I was oblivious to the anger that was spewing forth from me in every venue possible. My words could cut like a knife, my fixed stare could pierce as a sharp dagger and my body language said, “Leave this one alone! Danger! High Voltage!” It wasn’t until my lovely and gracious wife kindly alerted me to my explosive responses to normal, everyday occurrences; events that were seemingly insignificant by any reasonable standards. Her gentle words caused me to muse about the progression of my hotheadedness. I got down on my knees and begged God for an answer. For weeks I pleaded over and over again, “God, please help me to change!” I didn’t want to be a burden to my wife, family, or friends; I wanted to be a blessing. Like so many others I mistakenly viewed God as though He were a vending machine. “Lord,” I cried out, “Don’t you see that I have dropped my coins (church attendance, tithes, mission support and special offerings) in the slot!” “Where is my help?” I asked Him. No morsel of peace fell from the spirals of grace into the bin of my life; at least not in the manner that I had envisioned.

# posted by David @ 11:28 PM 0 comments

My abdomen had become so large that I couldn’t even bend over comfortably and tie my shoes; hence, I was buying Velcro closure athletic shoes to avoid the strain of staying bent over long enough to complete such a simple task. Almost every pair of pants that I owned had the expandable waistline and not because I wanted the relaxed fit such flexibility can provide. No, pride kept me from admitting to myself that I had become so huge that buying a size 52 waist, which could expand to a size 56 waist, would allow me to suppress the reality that I was morbidly obese. Oh, and let’s not forget those “tent” style shirts! You know the kind that has the square bottom so it can be worn neatly on the outside of your pants. I call them “curtain” shirts, because they can be draped over your body and hide the excess weight quite nicely.

# posted by David @ 10:09 PM 6 comments

At that point in time, I was tipping the scales at 375 pounds, wearing a size 58 suit coat and I had a 56 inch waist. I had become so weakened by carrying around this excess weight that my son had to finish cutting the lawn for me, because I was out of breath after about 10 minutes. Sadly, you can cut our entire miniscule patch of grass in twenty minutes! I felt so drained of energy after making a few rounds with the lawnmower that I just couldn’t put one foot in front of the other. I began to fall asleep at work. Additionally, the excess weight had given rise to a condition known as sleep apnea. A very dangerous sleep disorder associated with cardio vascular disease!

# posted by David @ 1:40 AM 1 comments